All about smart babysitting

There are many kinds of childcare but only you would know which one is right for your child. What works for others may not work for you. As a parent, you really need to assess which kind of childcare suits your children. But if you’re like most parents that prefer babysitting services, then you’ve probably heard of Sittercity.

Just like any parent, you’d probably want to know if Sittercity is the best option for your childcare needs. Can you actually find reliable babysitters from Sittercity? You can only find the true answer to that once you go over all the other childcare service providers.

Online Babysitting Service Providers

Nowadays, babysitting service providers are available online. There are, actually, a lot nowadays. The good thing about it is that you can just stay home and go over all the web-based babysitting service providers on your computer. It’s pretty easy nowadays. You just really need to assess which service provider will work for you and your children.

Paid Vs. Free Babysitting Service Providers

You can choose between free or paid membership. There’s a lot of babysitting service providers that are free. All you have to do is to just sign up. But you’ll have very limited privileges. The most that you will get from a free membership is the chance to post a job. While you will hear from interested babysitters, you won’t have access to all the safety measures of the service provider. Ignoring the safety measures in place can be very risky, most especially when it comes to childcare.

While, on the other hand, you can avail of all the safety measures with a paid membership. Sittercity offers both free and paid membership. Needless to say, your kids will definitely be in better hands if you avail of the paid membership.

The paid membership of Sittercity is very affordable. Among all the babysitting service providers online, only Sittercity has a three-month membership plan. You wouldn’t have to worry about paying an annual membership. That can get pretty expensive. You’ll find the three-month membership plan very practical.

Membership Perks

At a glance, web-based babysitting service providers offer the same services. But looking closely at Sittercity, you will find that it offers more in-depth safety services. For example, Sittercity and the other babysitting services offer background check for all their members. As a matter of fact, all babysitting service providers boast that their babysitters have undergone some kind of background check. This is what all the web-based babysitting service providers boast about and that includes Sittercity.

But what makes Sittercity stand out is the fact that parents have the option to run more background checks on the babysitters. If for some reason, the parents are not satisfied with the background check provided by the babysitter, they can get their own background check done. This is one valuable membership perk available only in Sittercity. Parents will definitely have more peace of mind with this one-of-a-kind safety service.

Once you’ve gone over all the other childcare service providers online, you will find that Sittercity offers the most reliable babysitters. You really don’t have to look anywhere else. As a Sittercity member, your membership perks include safety, ease-of-use, and affordability.

So if you do decide on babysitting as your preferred childcare service, you can immediately go for Sittercity. You will definitely find the babysitter of your choice from Sittercity. There’s just no doubt that Sittercity is your best option for childcare.

What’s a perfect sitter? Is there really such a thing? You want to think there is. But the reality of things is this. Finding one that suits your needs is the closest. From there, you easily conclude that she’s the perfect one. But is she really the perfect one?

Nowadays, there ways to really get to know the babysitter you’re hiring. The online sitter services can really help you in your search. For example, Sittercity can run a background on the babysitters. This service is a good start in finding that perfect babysitter.

What She Should Know

So she seems perfect. Her background check is good. She seems to fit the bill perfectly. But you shouldn’t just end there. According to this article, your babysitter should know these basic things.

If you have a newborn, your babysitter should know the following. First things first, she should be able to administer infant CPR. This is one basic skill that your babysitter should know. She should be certified to administer it. The same goes for First Aid and AR. You should ask for their certification and check the validity. Certified First Aiders carry a plastic card that’s issued by the Red Cross. To be sure, you can also verify it thru a background check.

Second of all, she should know how to bottle-feed your newly born. Also, she should know how to carry your baby for burping. Third, she should know how to change diapers. You wouldn’t want your baby wet. You’d want her to be comfortable. Fourth, she should know how to properly put your baby to sleep. These are basic skills. Your babysitter should know all these.

For a child that’s between six to twelve months, here are the basic skills. Again, she should be certified to administer First Aid, CPR, and AR. If she’s certified to administer First Aid, she’ll know how to deal with choking. This is very important for this particular age group. They’re the ones that tend to put things in their mouth.

For a child that’s over a year old, here are the basic skills. Again, she should be certified to administer First Aid, CPR, and AR. Second, she should know how to entertain your little one. She should have a plan. And you should ask it from her.

Third, she should be able to know how to handle tantrums. You want to be sure she’s patient enough to handle tantrums. There’s just no way you’re hiring someone who will yell at your child.

These are just the few basic things your babysitter should know. You should look out for these skills. Make sure you take everything up during the interview. Even better, you can even include these skills in your job post. That way, you’ve already set your expectations.

Don’t Conclude Right Away

Given all that, you shouldn’t come to a conclusion right away. As a caring parent, you should try to get feedback from other parents. This may be hard to do. But with Sittercity, it’s easy.

With Sittercity, you can easily get feedback from the other parents. As a Sittercity member, you have access to all the reviews posted by other parents. Again, this is a valuable service you can’t do without. You want to find the perfect babysitter, right? This valuable service feature will really help you a lot.

There are other things you should consider. But these are the major elements that you should factor into your search. Finding the perfect babysitter can be tedious. It is a long road after all. But with Sittercity, you can do it.

Is it even possible? Can you or anyone for that matter find an awesome babysitter?

It’s very hard to say how a babysitter can actually be awesome. That would really be up to you.

What can be awesome for some may not be awesome for others. You would really have to define what an awesome babysitter is. All that would heavily rely on the qualities that you are looking for.

So since parents have their own set of qualities that they look out for in a babysitter, it might be a bit complicated to actually find an awesome babysitter. A parent, like you, would have to do a lot of research to really find an awesome babysitter. So how would you go about it?

Stephanie Zenina is an instructor for Kidproof Safety, a global community that aims to promote child safety through learning. It provides babysitting courses every year. As an instructor, Stephanie shares her insights on this video:

“Go and ask the people that you know., colleagues you work with, close-circuit family, friends, and neighbors.”

She adds:

“They have good references, also a plus.”

Stephanie makes a good point by stating that it’s perfectly okay for you to go and ask the people you know for references. Although it might take some time to get with a couple of people, it’s still a good way to get hold of references.

Once you have a handful of references, it’s time to put the qualities of an awesome babysitter in place. Here are a couple qualities that you should look out for.

Look For One Who Is Mature

After asking a couple of folks for references, the first quality you should actually look out for is maturity. According to Stephanie:

“Definitely, somebody who is mature. You don’t want a babysitter who needs to be babysat. Somebody who has taken a class, such as Kidproof, is definitely a big, big plus. “

Stephanie actually nails it by citing maturity as one of the qualities you should look out for. You don’t want a babysitter whom you have to take care of, right? What’s the point of hiring her if she can’t do her job?

Unfortunately, maturity is a trait that’s not easily discerned. You can’t really tell right away if the babysitter has this particular quality at the first meeting. Surely, you can always go back and ask your friends; after all, they were the ones who had referred the babysitter. Unfortunately, that’s a bit too time consuming.

So one good alternative for you is to look into Sittercity, which is a website that specializes in providing childcare. You can look at the credentials of the babysitters and at the same time, read the reviews of their previous employers. While doing all that, you will be able to discern whom among the babysitters have the right level of maturity for the job. Needless to say, Sittercity is what parents need for all their childcare concerns.

Look Out For One Who Sincerely Likes Kids

It’s really a no-brainer. You need to get a babysitter who sincerely likes kids but who has the right level of maturity to care for them as well.

Stephanie quotes:

“… a great babysitter plays with children.”

Looking out for such qualities will compel you to really get to know the babysitter way before you hire her. That’s okay because that’s how it should really be.

Stephanie recommends that you ask questions that simulate role-plays.

“You want to ask them how they handle certain situations. Say, what if my daughter and my son are fighting over a toy. How would you handle that? So you do want to put them in practical situation to find out if the maturity and the problem solving skills are there. If your child likes the babysitter, you’re good to go.”

Keeping The Babysitter

Here’s something to keep in mind at all times. Finding a babysitter may just be a lot easier than keeping one. Once you have found an awesome babysitter, you want to hold on to her, right? Well, you can.

“You want to be friendly with them; you don’t want to be too demanding.”

If the babysitter finds her work environment friendly, she will definitely do more than you expect to do. For example, she might even clean up the dishes after feeding your kids.

Keeping a friendly atmosphere will only help the babysitter feel more comfortable at your home. Hence, you have more chances of keeping such an awesome babysitter with the kind of work environment you are providing for her.

It’s not easy finding and keeping such an awesome babysitter. Once you have found her, do your best to keep her. Compensate her more to motivate her to stay.

According to Stephanie:

“Not drastically to ten dollars but, you know, you can give twenty-five cents extra and you also want to find a bond with them too. It’s not that they’ll just bond with your children; they also want to bond with you. So if they bond with you, if you have a great connection with them, you obviously have a great babysitter tucked away at your belt.”

That is something you truly need since you can always call on her each time you want to go out.

Finding a babysitter is already a tedious task in itself. You literally have to study the applicants before you make a major decision. Even if you are signed up with Sittercity, you simply cannot make a random decision to find that awesome babysitter you have been looking for.

Now, keeping that awesome babysitter is another tedious task in itself. However, it is worth all the trouble to do your best to keep the awesome babysitter you rely on all the time.

Hopefully, the simple recommendations mentioned above can help you find and keep that awesome babysitter you have been looking for a very long time.